Newsletter

3 Tips for Online Audience Targeting

October 2014

Demographics cut a lot of ways, but when you determine who you’re trying to reach, a vital part of connecting with them is determining where they get their information and what resources they have. Here are some revealing statistics that will help you reach and connect with your target audience.

Find where they are on social media

It shouldn’t be surprising that not all platforms are equal. Pew has someexcellent research into which platforms men and women of different ages, ethnicities, and incomes use to consume their news. For example, half of people who consume news on LinkedIn are between the ages of 30 and 49, while people ages 18 to 29 tend to use Twitter and YouTube.

And how much time do they dedicate to these platforms? Nielsen findings show that users spend the most time on Facebook (the average American takes 40 minutes from their day to check their News Feed), whether they’re on a computer or a mobile device. But Instagram comes in a close second in time spent in apps, and has the highest rate of engagement of any social media platform. Not to mention that 90 percent of their users are under 35, making Instagram a great place to reach younger generations if you’ve got the right message.

Figure out what they read and what they read it on

Getting your message to resonate is also dictated by how people are accessing whatever they read online. 2014 data shows that 58 percent of all adults have a smartphone, and 60 percent of all cell phone users use their phones to access the Internet. And now, about a third of cell phone users “mostly” use their phones to access the Internet instead of laptops, tablets, or desktop computers.

People are accessing their news across an array of media, and print continues to have a strong showing. When you get into print media, we can see that Generation X, who is in their prime earning years, is a huge target market. While newspapers and print media remain the best way to reach an audience over the age of 65, numbers show that 49 percent of adults ages 18 to 34 have read a newspaper in the past week, and of people over 35, the number jumps to 65 percent.

Magazines have experienced large audience changes too, but in 2012 (the most recent data available in the 2013 Pew State of the News Media report) overall subscriptions to The Atlantic, The Week, The New Yorker, The Economist, Time, and Newsweek were up from 2011. The data also shows that those who subscribe to news magazines have a median annual income higher than the average median household income, making print media a much more attractive way to reach a target audience than a lot of people realize.

Examine income potential

A large part of effectively targeting a campaign comes down to money – does your audience have it, and will they spend it on your product and/or service when they find out about it wherever they are?

Pew found that a majority of social media users with an income of more than $75,000 per year spend their time on LinkedIn – they make up 63 percent of the site’s user base. That same group makes up the smallest user base on Google Plus, making up only 38 percent of users.

Also keep in mind the kind of money different age groups have. For example, half of Millennials have a net worth less than $10,400 – something to consider if they’re your target audience. That amount goes up to $46,700 for people ages 35 to 44 and peaks for those ages 65 to 74, half of whom have a net worth higher than $232,100.

Money, online presence, and where readers obtain their media are three important factors in determining whether your message will resonate. It’s important to understand that there are influencers in every space who can help your message and there are people with income out there to purchase your products and services, but keeping abreast of demographic slices can help ensure you’re reaching them in all possible places.

About BurrellesLuce

BurrellesLuce is the U.S. leader in media monitoring. Professionals in a wide range of industries rely on our comprehensive curated content from local and national print, online, broadcast, and social media sources. BurrellesLuce has a turnkey copyright compliance program that allows us to provide copyright-compliant, behind-the-paywall content not available to other services. BurrellesLuce combines grade-A content with easy-to-use software, allowing users to evaluate and analyze their media coverage and PR efforts. It's all integrated into our user-friendly interface, BurrellesLuce WorkFlow™.